Royal Mail pension news and discussion.Please note the advise given in this forum is unofficial, please use the links we have for a more detailed response or see an independent financial adviser.
k979aaa wrote:Got news for you all the final salary pension scheme ended in April 2008!. We are now in a career average scheme!. so not much too lose then!.
But they did not close down the FSP scheme just froze the benefits at that particular point and then started a CAS. The threat is they wind up the FSP scheme and everyone looses their accrued benefits etc, although AFAIU at a minimum we get back what we paid into it.
Hopefully someone who understands pensions better than me can explain it better, or in full if I have got it wrong.
Current Rules
The benefits you've built up prior to April 2008 are still based on your final salary when you leave RM,however you can't build up any more years.
The Career Average scheme is effectively a different pension for each year you work from April 2008 onwards,but it is still based on your salary!
Potential New Rules
They could stop the link with salary altogether and introduce a money purchase pension,which is far worse than Career average.
The only way you will lose any pension built up before any future changes is if RM go bust and then the maximum losss should only be 10%,see here:- http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org. ... _pensions/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Maybe we should look at things a different way?
Since Management;the government and Trustees seem incapable of running a pension scheme and clearly cannot be trusted to manage our deferred wages in a way that benefits us, then perhaps our wages should not be left in their sticky mits in future. Draw a line under the existing scheme,make it paid up and from that point forward add all contributions on to the basic wage with an added allowance to offset increased taxation. One less blackmail tool for management , one more choice for us.I mean you wouldn't trust the bunch of crooks in power to look after the family silver would you? yet you give them a big chunk of the money you earn each week and then they threaten you with non return if you fail to obey their will.
BELIAL wrote:Maybe we should look at things a different way?
Since Management;the government and Trustees seem incapable of running a pension scheme and clearly cannot be trusted to manage our deferred wages in a way that benefits us, then perhaps our wages should not be left in their sticky mits in future. Draw a line under the existing scheme,make it paid up and from that point forward add all contributions on to the basic wage with an added allowance to offset increased taxation. One less blackmail tool for management , one more choice for us.I mean you wouldn't trust the bunch of crooks in power to look after the family silver would you? yet you give them a big chunk of the money you earn each week and then they threaten you with non return if you fail to obey their will.
We currently pay 6% of our pensionable pay into the pension scheme,RM pay 30%.
Are you seriously suggesting that we should say no to that amount of free money?
k979aaa wrote:New recruits do not have a pension as far as i know!. if you are a new recruit please correct me!.
I'm not a new recruit,but I think they can join a money purchase scheme after 1 years employment. But i think they only recieve 2% contribution from RM.
BELIAL wrote:Maybe we should look at things a different way?
Since Management;the government and Trustees seem incapable of running a pension scheme and clearly cannot be trusted to manage our deferred wages in a way that benefits us, then perhaps our wages should not be left in their sticky mits in future. Draw a line under the existing scheme,make it paid up and from that point forward add all contributions on to the basic wage with an added allowance to offset increased taxation. One less blackmail tool for management , one more choice for us.I mean you wouldn't trust the bunch of crooks in power to look after the family silver would you? yet you give them a big chunk of the money you earn each week and then they threaten you with non return if you fail to obey their will.
We currently pay 6% of our pensionable pay into the pension scheme,RM pay 30%.
Are you seriously suggesting that we should say no to that amount of free money?
RobertT wrote:It hasn't been as low as 9% for at least 10 years.
The 30% includes extra to take into account the huge deficit the scheme has!
Is the deficit caused by reduncies and retirements and therefore fewer contributions and the fact that the more time goes on that more will retire and royalmails slash and burn policy of job cuts will mean less contributions to the fund and more deficits for the future!. IT IS AN EVER DECREASING CIRCLE!.
k979aaa wrote:[Is the deficit caused by reduncies and retirements and therefore fewer contributions and the fact that the more time goes on that more will retire and royalmails slash and burn policy of job cuts will mean less contributions to the fund and more deficits for the future!. IT IS AN EVER DECREASING CIRCLE!.
That and:-
1)Everyone is living longer so pensions are being paid out for longer.
2)A lot of the scheme assets were invested in equities/shares which went down in value.
3)RM took a 13 year payment holiday partly due to accounting procedures that have since become more stringent.
k979aaa wrote:[Is the deficit caused by reduncies and retirements and therefore fewer contributions and the fact that the more time goes on that more will retire and royalmails slash and burn policy of job cuts will mean less contributions to the fund and more deficits for the future!. IT IS AN EVER DECREASING CIRCLE!.
That and:-
1)Everyone is living longer so pensions are being paid out for longer.
2)A lot of the scheme assets were invested in equities/shares which went down in value.
3)RM took a 13 year payment holiday partly due to accounting procedures that have since become more stringent.
So more redundancy's are detrimental to the scheme as a whole!.
BELIAL wrote:Maybe we should look at things a different way?
Since Management;the government and Trustees seem incapable of running a pension scheme and clearly cannot be trusted to manage our deferred wages in a way that benefits us, then perhaps our wages should not be left in their sticky mits in future. Draw a line under the existing scheme,make it paid up and from that point forward add all contributions on to the basic wage with an added allowance to offset increased taxation. One less blackmail tool for management , one more choice for us.I mean you wouldn't trust the bunch of crooks in power to look after the family silver would you? yet you give them a big chunk of the money you earn each week and then they threaten you with non return if you fail to obey their will.
We currently pay 6% of our pensionable pay into the pension scheme,RM pay 30%.
Are you seriously suggesting that we should say no to that amount of free money?
First things first, don't know where you get the idea that it's free money, we earn every sweat soaked ,wind blown ,dog bitten,management bullied,timed ,computer predicted,sort tested penny
Second ,lets have that 30% in our basic wage ,then see how much the buggers could threaten us with taking away money we have already earned
